THE National Government’s total outstanding debt has increased to P15.02 trillion as of the end of April 2024 due to the net financing and the impact of Philippine peso depreciation against the US dollar.
The Bureau of Treasury (BoT) said the end April 2024 outstanding debt is .61 percent or P91.50 billion higher than the end-March 2024 level.
The agency said the major factor for the increase was the depreciation of local currency against US dollar from P56.260 as of end March to P57.583 as of the end of April.
Out of the total debt stock, 31.36 percent or P4.71 trillion is external debt while 68.64 percent or P10.31 trillion is domestic borrowings.
The domestic debt for April has increased by .30 percent or P31.01 billion from March.
Since January, domestic debt went up by P290.57 billion or 2.90 percent while year-on-year growth was recorded at P850.66 billion or 8.99 percent.
“For the month, the increment resulted from the P27.23 billion net insurance of government securities and the P3.78 billion effect of peso depreciation of foreign-currency-denominated domestic debt,” the bureau said.
External debt stock also goes up by 1.30 percent or P60.49 billion with P110.38 billion or 2.40 percent increase as compared to its end-December 2023 level and by P255.42 billion or 5.74 percent on a year-on-year basis.
“Although there was a net repayment of P32.91 billion in foreign loans within the month, the considerable depreciation of the peso caused a P109.31 billion upward adjustment in the local valuation of US-dollar-denominated debt, partly offset by the P15.91 billion downward adjustment brought about by the opposite movement of third currency debt,” it added.
The treasury department also recorded a P10.02 billion or 2.89 percent increase in the National Government’s guaranteed obligations totaling P356.06 billion.
It said the increment was brought about by the net availment of domestic guarantees amounting to P7.54 billion and the impact of peso depreciation on foreign-currency-denominated guarantees amounting to P3.80 billion.
It noted that third-currency adjustment against the US dollar went down by P1.32 billion. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)